Support annexation proposalRussellville officials have approved an annexation plan that would add a sizable chunk of land and a hefty number of residents to the city. On Nov. 2, voters will decide the issue. A cursory look at the city's borders, potential growth and surrounding neighbors indicates that the city should annex some property, especially to the northeast, where much of the county's growth is occurring. State turnback funds grow in relation to population. So,...

Pay aside, adopt planIn this space on Wednesday, we contended that before anything else can happen in Russellville's ongoing debate over municipal employee salaries, City Council members must first determine whether they think those salaries are too low. Until officials answer that question, the rest of the issue is moot. Raise salaries or don't raise salaries, this discussion could have one positive outcome. We've seen proposals for uniformed and non-uniformed em...

Question at heart of pay debateRussellville officials have been wearing out the nearly dead horse of municipal employee salaries. These aren't new discussions. City councils and mayors in this little city have been going over this same ground for years, but they haven't really gotten anywhere. The issues today are the same ones that haven't been dealt with in years past. Uniformed employees want more money, claiming that the police and fire departments can't keep good help ...

Prison overcrowding prompts tough questionsState prison officials will release nearly 600 inmates in the next three months, ahead of their scheduled get-out-of-jail date. The move comes not from a benevolent mood but from the reality of overcrowded prisons (and county jails, which house 873 state prisoners that local jails don't get paid for, but that's another commentary). State prisons bursting at their seams isn't a new phenomenon. Early releases have been an ongoing stop-gap measur...

Finally, football season!OK. So it didn't exactly feel like football weather Thursday night as Arkansas Tech University's Wonder Boys rolled through Northeastern (Okla.) State, 52-28, but that game kicked off the 2004 campaign. Football season is here, and we're glad it is. Baseball's a great game and all, with its laid-back pace and social nature. Basketball's fine, too. Those games seldom get rained out. But football ... Well, it's just a different kinda deal. From ...

The words say it all"I believe in the River Valley." Those words mean a lot to us. They're the theme of a special project that we've begun working on. Every year on October Sundays, we publish what we call our annual "Progress" sections, which highlight the good things going on in this area. This year, instead of just focusing on concrete progress - growth, new facilities, awards - we're going to give lots of folks a chance to tell our readers why they believe in...

Let's adopt salary plan at long last"This is the third year they have come up with a schedule that was an outgrowth of previous administrations ..." "Certainly, we need to look at this and put together a formula, but to do this all in one whack, I don't think we can do that." "What's happening is we'll lose one or two this year who have three or four years' experience." Those comments made by Russellville municipal officials speak to several aspects of the current debate over sa...

Wage study would give insightNo matter which side of Russellville's municipal employee salary squabble we're on today, there is one thing we know: We don't know enough about municipal employee salaries. We don't really know what the starting salary for a police officer in a city of 25,000 people ought to be. We don't really know what the annual salary for a city attorney should be in a town with a similar crime rate. We don't really know what to pay a full-time city plann...

Officials miss mark on salariesThe latest chapter in Russellville's municipal employee salary saga is hitting many of the same off-key notes of the past. A salary study city officials have been looking at compares Russellville's municipal compensation information with that of other cities and towns across the state. It may be more correct to compare Russellville to other Arkansas locales than to small cities in Canada or Equador or Pakistan, but saying that Russellville is ...

Don't penalize South Korean for judges' mistakeSupposedly, the Olympic Games are about athletes competing against the best in the world. No doubt, in the Games taking place over in Athens, we've seen some fantastic performances in marquee events. Diehard fans have been able to witness greatness in obscure sports as well. Somewhere in the mix of athletics and pressure and training a lifetime for a few seconds comes intense nationalism. This is probably more true of the fans than the athlete...

Make time to examine personnelThursday night's Russellville City Council meeting was similar in tone and subject matter to many of the past six or eight years. A Matter of Urgent Need came up out of the blue, and the men and women sitting around the horseshoe would feel pressure to take Immediate Action. Dum-de-dum-dum. This time, the matter was one that has often prompted these hand-wringing sessions - municipal salaries. Well, no, make that uniformed personnel salaries. ...

Restraint giving them confidence?Once a week or so, news alerts will race around the world telling us that U.S. and token Iraqi troops are preparing a major offensive against the latest organized threat. "Two thousand Marines stand ready to drive the 500 loyalists from the shrine," will come the news. And then the shooting will start. A couple hours later, the results will be in. "U.S. officials say coalition forces killed three insurgents and wounded six others before agreei...

ATU growth bodes well for all of usArkansas Tech University needs three things. More room for students. More parking spaces. More money. The first two needs come from the school's ever-growing student body. Tech's enrollment - as counted by the number of credit hours its students are taking - keeps hitting record after record. That's in part because its faculty and staff are providing educational opportunities that keep upperclassmen coming back year after year. No doubt, the s...

Tragic story has meaning for us allTimothy Adam Smith is 19 years old. When he's not in Iraq - or Walter Reed Army Medical Center - he lives in Plainview. He graduated from Plainview-Rover High School, and he did what he could to help other youth from his church get closer to their God. He's a typical Arkansas guy, in other words. He's a good guy, and he deserves good things in his life. Don't take our word for it. Just ask his family. They surround Adam like homestead oak tree...

Comparing apples-apples on salariesStatistics can be your best friend. They can be your worst enemy. They can be as clear as the morning sky or as murky as the ocean depths. Depending on your perspective - and your willingness to wring every ounce out of the numbers - statistics can be just about anything to anyone at anytime. That's why we've been interested in looking at numbers from the Russellville Police Department's salaries spreadsheet. Some of the numbers seem to indica...

Consulate is sign of influenceWord came from Little Rock that the Mexican government is most likely going to soon open a consulate in our state capital. Officials from our neighbor to the south noted that Arkansas' proximity and existing Hispanic population make it a natural location for a consulate. We agree, but not everyone will. We suspect that the announcement will be met with mixed reactions. We can almost hear already the cries of the "taking our jobs" crowd. We kno...

Rude words not the root of all evilTeresa Heinz Kerry told a journalist to "shove it." Vice President Dick Cheney told a senator to ... hmmm ... there's really no way to even hint at what he said without besmirching the pages of a family newsaper. And anyone who read the Starr Report knows what President Bill Clinton said about all sorts of things not relating to the economy, stupid. The point is, politicians are like everybody else. They say things that under the harsh light o...

Courts have contempt for First AmendmentMost Americans haven't been inside a newsroom. Neither "All the President's Men" nor "Paper Chase" paint the most realistic picture of what it's really like to work at a newspaper and how we inky wretches go about our daily grind. It's understandable that some First Amendment issues seem to be more important to journalists than to the general public. We hit the roof early and often when it comes to freedom of the press and all that jazz, and i...

Fishin' trip not much for catchin'By Rick Fahr editor@couriernews.com The state Game and Fish Commission folks usually get it right when it comes to information regarding the state's wildlife, but they missed the mark with this week's fishing report. "White River: Trout fishing is great on night crawlers, wax worms and yellow or white Power Bait. Fly-fishing is good using little sowbugs, tan Scuds, 1⁄64-ounce pink jigs, peach-colored Glow Bugs, 1⁄8-ounce gold Cleo spoons and b...

Job riding on race resultsBy David Sanders Arkansas' 2004 election cycle provides little excitement for those focused on state-based politics, but one race is starting to draw some attention. The race between state Rep. Bill Stovall of Quitman and Charles "Chee Chee" Tamburo of Heber Springs for the District 59 seat merits a mention. Stovall, a Democrat, is slated to become the next speaker of the House and should win re-election. Veterans of Arkansas politics point ou...